IRON Trooper

It's time to panic, because something terrible is mad as hell.

Silent, inscrutable, and forever lurking at the very fringes of Earth's history, the IRON Troopers (also called IRON Soldiers) are the spawn of the ancient Talisman and a product of the intersection between Cybertronian science and magic. Though they can be programmed to carry out basic functions and obey simple commands, they seem instinctively drawn to the Talisman to defend it from any potential threats.

Though not particularly durable or powerful on their own, the IRON Troopers are nothing if not determined, and will gladly lay down their lives in mass suicidal charges to defend their objectives. Despite their general mindlessness and expendability, they have been known to adopt different styles of human clothing and utilize unorthodox tactics when dealing with foes above their weight class.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

The mechanical drones that humanity would later dub "IRON Troopers" were first created by the Talisman some ten thousand years ago in the land that would become Brasnya. Having been inadvertently brought to Earth by the crash of the Maximal starship Axalon, visiting Decepticon Shockwave briefly studied the Talisman during his psychological experiments on the crew of the Axalon, watching with interest as the Talisman forged an army of drones out of the ship's wreckage. When Shockwave eventually departed to tend to other matters, the Talisman and its servants were buried in ice and eventually forgotten. Strange Visitors

By the time of World War II, the Axis had evidently discovered the robotic army and were able to reprogram some of their number. In 1943, Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles accidentally encountered a detachment of the machines during a firefight in Kalistan. Savage was able to defeat them by simply ripping off their heads; fellow soldier Garrison Kreiger was inspired by their encounter and vowed to learn more about these incredible machines. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb

Around 1945, Screaming Eagles encountered more of the IRON Troopers in Paris, who had been drawn to a violent confrontation between "Bumblebee" and "Shockwave." While searching for the Axalon with "Bumblebee," Kreiger and Savage encountered dozens more IRON Troopers, who were instinctively drawn to the residual Talisman energy the ship held. Centurion and Savage investigated the wreck of the ship but were drawn out again when the Iron Troopers revealed a new tactic: combining, they puppeteered the body of Centurion's old commander to attack Centurion. Centurion was able to defeat them, but the Axalon and Savage vanished in the ensuing battle. Strange Visitors

In the 1960s, the Brasnyan government was able to recover several expired IRON Troopers left behind from the battle of the Axalon. Several spies were able to smuggle pieces of the alien technology out of the country and into the United States through the United Kingdom; one severed head found its way to Pawtucket, where it was used as an improvised hologram projector. British super-spy Action Man tracked the smugglers to the US where he encountered a young Mike Power. The young Power managed to get his hands on the head and reverse-engineered it to create a new set of "atomic" limbs for himself. Power and Glory

After four decades of searching, Kreiger discovered the Talisman beneath the Tomb of Amtoltec in 1984 and soon experimented with its capabilities, conjuring a new army of mummy-themed IRON Troopers in the process. His activities drew the attention of Joe Colton's Adventure Team and Soundwave, the latter having tracked the Talisman's unusual energy signature to Dahshur. In the ensuing fight, Kreiger deployed dozens of the robots to bog down Soundwave, provoking the annoyed Transformer into leaving. In the aftermath, Kreiger quietly absconded with the Talisman and continued investigating its secrets. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb

Some time afterwards, the Adventure Team were deployed to deal with a platoon of IRON Troopers that had kidnapped Dr. Emil Burkhart, though they were unable to rescue him in time. Power and Glory In the meantime, Kreiger continued his research into the Talisman and its creations. When Atomic Man came to him seeking further upgrades to his prostheses, Kreiger recruited him into "Project: Ice Man"; When Eagles Scream by further upgrading his cyborg physiology, Power became an avatar of the Talisman itself, able to serve as a conduit between Kreiger's machinery and the IRON troopers spawned from the Talisman. Kreiger was eventually able to replicate the same trick the IRON Troopers had pulled during the battle against Centurion, and created hundreds of them to pilot the dead bodies of Domitius Major and the "Maximal Shockwave". When Ayana Jones and her team infiltrated Kreiger's Brasnyan base, he retaliated by deploying his two "I.R.O.N. Cybertronians". They, and the IRON Troopers piloting their remains from within, were permanently deactivated after Atomic Man committed suicide. Power and Glory

Notes

• The Iron Troopers are inspired by Blitz's I.R.O.N. Stormtroopers from the 1990s Sgt. Savage animated series. In the IDW continuity, however, it seems to be the other way around.